Associate Professor Michael Griffin

Associate Professor Michael Griffin is a protein biochemist and structural biologist who leads a laboratory in the Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacology at the Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute, the University of Melbourne.

A/Prof Griffin’s research team is focused on understanding how messages are relayed between and interpreted by cancer cells. This includes determining the mechanism of assembly and function of large, multimeric signalling complexes at the cell surface using protein biophysics, crystallography, and advanced cryo-EM technology. These complexes enable cancer cells to identify and respond to the messages that instruct tumours to grow, metastasise, and alter response to chemotherapy. The information that his team generates is utilised to generate novel cancer treatments, that are validated across multiple pre-clinical patient derived model systems, with a view to rapid translation and improved patient outcomes.

A/Prof Griffin completed his PhD at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand and has been awarded an ARC Postdoctoral Fellowship, C.R. Roper Fellowship and ARC Future Fellowship. Successful therapeutic development enabled him to co-found a company to rapidly progress a new drug for patients. He is a chief investigator of the ARC Centre for Cryo-Electron Microscopy of Membrane Proteins for Drug Discovery. His research program has also received funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, Australian Research Council (ARC), Worldwide Cancer Research and Cancer Council New South Wales.

‍